A first-of-its-kind study attempting to rate global R&D service providers has found Indian players account for half of all offshored work in 2008: $ 9.4 billion in revenues out of a total $ 18.7 worth of business. If China, a close second, is added, the two nations take in 90 percent of all outsourced, offshored R&D business. By end 2009, expectations are India's share will be around $ 10b of a possible $ 20 billion of such work.
The study carried over the last four months by leading India-based technology and offshore advisors, Zinnov Management Consultants ( www.zinnov.com ), lists Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Romania and Vietnam as the other leading R& provider nations.

By May this year, the effects of the year long recession seemed to be waning and the offshored R&D can expect to claw back to pre 2008 levels, albeit at a slowish 6-8 percent growth rate, Zinnov CEO Pari Natarajan says. However, it may never be the old style business: clients are increasingly bending on their providers to put up money into the development and share some of the risk in return for revenue sharing, adds Zinnov's Engagement Manager Karthik Ananth.
Wipro, TCS and HCL are the world's top three R&D providers -- followed by Aricent and Mindtree. Mid-market players like Tata Elxsi, Tech Mahindra, Symphony, Sonata, Global Logic, Polaris and Aditi are seen to be moving towards the leaders, by leveraging their strengths in specific verticals.

Zinnov executives also point at the emergence of focussed players like Auriga from Russia, with strengths in pharma as well as Chinese software providers like Beyondsoft and VanceInfo.

Wipro is the world's leader in three verticals: consumer electronics, semiconductors and healthcare; TCS is top of the heap in automotive R&D; Aricent leads the pack in telecom; HCL in aerospace/defence and Symphony in software..